Emmaus police officers will contribute to their health insurance premiums for the first time under a new contract that borough officials said will provide a long-term savings for the bottom line.

Borough council members on Monday unanimously approved the collective bargaining agreement drawn up with the Emmaus Police Officers Association.

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The agreement, along with new health insurance payments, also includes pay raises, increased pension contributions and a program intended to motivate trained officers to defer retirement. It will be in effect from Jan. 1 through 2022.

Council members lauded the contract before their vote. Wesley Barrett said the agreement contains "substantial tweaks and changes," and puts the borough and department on a good long-term financial track.

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The contract, at first, will cost the borough — officers will receive annual raises of between 4 and 4.7 percent.

Those raises are above average, but borough manager Shane Pepe said they only amount to a 3 percent net raise when weighed against other new payments officers will incur, such as health care contributions and pension increases.

"The things that we've been trying to get in the last 20 years out of that contract are now on our side," Pepe said.

The contract will usher in a new health care cost for officers, who until now have paid nothing toward their health insurance. They will pay $300 annually toward their health care starting in 2021.

New police hires will no longer be granted free health care in their retirement, which current officers and their families are eligible to receive. The borough now pays an estimated $325,000 in retirement health care benefits per retired officer, Pepe said.

"You're talking about a literal savings of millions and millions and millions of dollars," Pepe said.

Officers also will see incremental increases in their pension contributions, from 1.85 percent to 5 percent by 2022, the contract states.

Those increases will off-set the costs of a Deferred Retirement Option Plan, or DROP, which the borough established in the agreement. DROP allows retirement-aged officers to delay retirement for up to three years, which means more trained and experienced officers are available to teach new recruits.

The collective bargaining agreement is one of three union contracts to which the council members hope to agree by the end of the year. Pepe praised the Emmaus Police Officers Association for what he called a "very good negotiation."

"We bent, they bent further," he said.

AGREEMENT DETAILS

Emmaus Borough's new contract with the Emmaus Police Officers Association includes the following: